Blog Archive

Mark Orr's New Novel Small Press News of March 31, 2012

Smarter Than the Average Werewolf by Mark Orr is now available through Belfire Press. It's an urban fantasy/paranormal story with a twist of gritty detective thriller. Harvey Drago, the Intangible Private Eye, is hired to track down a serial killer known as the West End Werewolf. Little does Harvey know he will be hunting an actual lycanthrope, but surely his ability to pass through solid objects will protect him. Or will it? Available through ($2.99) Smashwords and ($11.99) Amazon in print and ($2.99) Kindle. Read an excerpt from Smarter Than the Average Werewolf.

Carrie Taylor's award-winning art comic, Karmic Book #2 is out, featuring her zen inspired art and meditations. Come see how easy it is to get pulled into the peaceful ebb and flow of her drawing. 16 pages with card stock cover. $2.00 (plus 50¢ postage) from Weird Muse Productions.

Get the whole run of Dan Taylor's popular Newave Comix series all under one cover in The Collected Shortoonz. This 48-page (6" x 9") trade paperback collects the entire run of five issues of Taylor's Shortoonz mini comic series from the late 1980's. Long out of print, this collection provides a great opportunity to own it without paying the huge eBay prices the original issues draw—if you can find them.

The collection includes all five of the original mini's covers. Each page has liner notes at the bottom, and as an added bonus, never before seen art from the series! This is the series that introduced such iconic characters as Freddy Freshkill and Badgirl!

Wildside Press launched a new forum on the ning platform last week. At launch, categories included Movies & TV, Book & eBooks, Audiobooks, Wildside Press Authors and Wildside Press Magazines. Join at Movies.ning.

Marc Palm and friends of Swell Zombie have launched Intruder a new comix paper up Seattle way. Free on locationor by $10 subscription elsewheres.

Mystery Tribune is on an aggressive growth path to become the premier online mystery magazine on the web, already a leading outlet for mystery news, commentary, and reviews of the notable books, movies and video games in the genre. With a heavy focus on fine writing and original thought in mystery literature, Mystery Tribune provides readers with unique coverage of short stories, fiction, and news of promising new voices, as well as some of the most distinguished names in the genre of mystery and suspense.

With a strong belief in the value of keeping mystery literature classics alive, the website also re-issues out-of-print mystery novels now in the public domain, first paperback editions and short stories from masters of the crime genre, free of charge.

Clark Dissmeyer has a new collected out, Meteorite the Annotated Complete Incomplete Complete Comic Strip. From the intro: "In the winter of 2001-02, I was adopted by a beautiful black cat I named Lucky. With her as my muse, one night I got the vague idea of doing a strip about a cat from outer space—hey, maybe it could even be a commercial, syndicated newspaper strip! Cats are always popular, and science fiction is steadily becoming more so, if a bastardized form. It was a natural! (I was not discouraged to find, shortly after this, a novelization of the bad 70's Disney film The Cat from Outer Space in a thrift store—they couldn't own the idea—and besides, my concept was quite different.) That same night I had a dream about Sun Ra, which I interpreted to mean that he approved of the idea, so I got to work on it:"

The 12-page, b&w collection includes 26 comic strips and 3 full comic pages in a 7" x 8.5" pamphlet with self-cover. To get your copy send a couple of bucks or a comix in trade to:Clark Dissmeyer
917 E. 25th St. #5
Kearney, NE 68847

Bad Roommate Zine, edited by Nicole Georges is out. It's a 72-page anthology of comics and prose stories about some of the most awkward, bizarre, maladjusted, disgusting and depraved roommates she could find. Funny, it will make 90% of humans feel better about their living situations. (The 10% who still feel bad, please send Georges your stories for the next issue!)

Needle #6 and Grift #1 Small Press News of March 24, 2012

Two exciting developments in crime fiction publishing, leveraging the new digital publishing models, were announced this week and last. Needle Magazine #6,
edited by Steve Weddle, is out. $7.50 from Needle Publishing. And Ed Gorman interviewed John Kenyon, publisher of the new crime fiction journal, Grift Magazine this week at the New Improved Ed Gorman.

Chase #14 Picking up from the conclusion in the previous issue, we find out more about the mysterious woman at SCDF Chief, Stan Winslow's house. Also, Liam, Christian and Amanda visit an old friend, former agent Thor Gustavson, to see if he's willing to re-activate. All this, plus an interesting conclusion that will ...no, you'll just have to read it. Story by Jim Main, art and lettering by John Lambert, production by Marc Haines and a special pin-up by Tony Lorenz. $4.40 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.

Annie Murphy Paul reports on Your Brain on Fiction in the March 17, 2012 edition of the New York Times. The article caught the attention of D.P. Lyle, MD who commented on it at The Writer's Forensics Blog.

Gerry Giovinco talks form and format in Stop the Presses Part 1 this week at the CO2 Comics Blog.

Joe R. Lansdale joins Tommy Hancock and Barry Reese to talk about Edge of Dark Water on the March 21, 2012 Pulped! Podcast. You can read Chapter One on the publisher's website, Mulholland Books, where you can also find an interview conducted by Mulholland Books.

Bob Corby made the SPACE Anthology 2012 available as a free PDF (with an iPad version in the works). Details at Back Porch Comics.

Brian John Mitchell over at Silber Media has a new stack of micro mini comics out. Titles include Astronaut Jane #1 with artwork by Jason Strutz, Built #2 with Joe Badon, Cerebus Refection with Jason Young, Marked #3 with Jeremy Johnson, Mobil Zombie, Promute: Origin, REH #1-3 with Andrew White, Star #2 with Kurt Dinse, and Vigilant #2. Mitchell's micro mini are only $1 each. You can load up at Silber Media Comics. You can also get a collection by supporting his Kickstarter fundraiser, that runs until April 7, 2012.

The March 14, 2012 edition of Willamette Week features an awesome cover (and several interior cartoon illustrations) by Hawk Krall. Stumptown locals may be lucky enough snag a print copy off the free stacks around the metro area, while those who've chosen for some reason to live elsewhere, can savor it online at Willamette Week.

Jessie Duke from Punch Drunk Press reports a lifetime subscription to everything Adam Gnade releases (books or records) for the rest of his life(!) for a one-time payment of $99. And it starts off with an impressive bundle of CDs and books from the Adam Gnade Store. But hurry, this offer ends soon!

The April issue of Funny Times is out. 12 issues for $25 makes a great new year's subscription from Funny Times.

Ken Meyer Jr. reviews The Collector #28 in the March edition of Ink Stains #39 on ComicAttack.net.

The new issue, Weird Tales #359, is out. It's the first issue published by Nth Dimension Media, and the last under the editorship of Ann VanderMeer who writes her farewell inside. It includes poems by Emily Jiang, Keith Schaffner, artwork and an interview with weird visionary Richard Kirk, a tour of weird music by Michael Skeet, an interview with author Laird Barron, fiction by Stephen Graham Jones, Tamsyn Muir, Tom Underberg, Leena Likitalo, Joel Lane, Evan J. Peterson, and Conrad Williams, an exploration on HPL's science fictional realm by Kenneth Hite, book reviews, and artwork by Matt Mills (cover) and Steven Archer. Available via four-issue subscriptions from Weird Tales Magazine.

Atomic Publishing has released Attack of the Flying Spiders by Charlie Meadows. In paperback for $5.99 (plus $$3.00 postage) from Atomic Publishing.

Carrie Wilkinson Taylor'sGoing Home is out from Weird Muse Productions. A warm and witty perzine about Carrie's experience of being adopted. $2.50 (postage paid) from Weird Muse.

The full color 40TH Anniversary issue of *PPFSZT! is here at last. Beginning with a front cover by Dan Burke, inside front cover by Brad Foster and back cover by Miguel Guerra, all new strips by Brien Wayne Powell (Magnet Man), Michael Anthony Carroll (RIP), Robert W. Brunelle (Mr Brunelle Explains It All), Henry Gustavson (Bill The Cockroach), Jason Yates (Parker and Kirby), Jim Main and Jack Bertarm (The Acrobat and The Simian), Steve Lafler (Kar-Tur The Swordsman and Jimmy Watts), Larry Johnson and Mike Tuz (Jesse Stuart), Dan Burke (The League of Annoying Heroes), George Leon (Main Pain), Mike Pascale (Things That Go *PPFSZT!), plus a *PPFSZT! Rouges Gallery photo section of many of the talented folks who have contributed material over the years of this long-running anthology. 44 full color interior pages plus 4 color covers. 8.00 per copy, S&H included from Main Enterprises.

Adventures in Airbrushing is the subject of Gerry Giovinco's latest installment on the CO2 Comics Blog.

Open call for š! #11 —looking for stories with a certain twist either inspired by art or about art. The theme can be interpreted very widely—your work can be about adventures encountering art, making art, inspired by art, or in any other way very "artventourous". For more information see KUŠ!, The KushKomikss Blog.

Xerography Debt #30 Small Press News of March 3, 2012

Zine reviewer D. Blake Werts sent a copy of the just out Xerography Debt #30, the review zine with perzine tendencies, edited by Davida Gypsy Breier. This issue sports covers by Bojan several articles about the world of zines and well over 100 reviews with order details. XD is a steal at $4.00 a copy from Microcosm Publishing or as part of a 6-issue subscription for $18.00. Get it? Get it!

The Big Click is an electronic magazine of crime fiction published bimonthly online and for various e-reader formats.

This week Gerry Giovinco writes about comics for everyone on the CO2 Comics Blog.

Steve Weddle announced the sixth issue of Needle Magazine is coming soon. Check Needle Mag for the contents list.

Marv Lachman writes about the late Tony Hillerman's early novels on Mystery File.

(From the website) We envision Prologue Books not simply an e-book publisher for out-of-print titles, but as a living record of the crime, science fiction, and fantasy genres. There’s a great opportunity to shine the spotlight on authors who may have been significantly influential on the current state of publishing, but who have never really received their due for one reason or another. With the help of luminaries in the genres–authors, readers, reviewers–we are excited to find those stories.

Tim Corrigan's Comics and Stories #62 arrived this week with part four of the current Mightyguy misadventure (4 pages) and part four of the Tranquilizer story (7 pages). Tim included an insert advising readers he and his wife Carol will be distributing a line of home-based products along the east coast, from Boston to Washington DC, over the coming six months. The busy schedule won't necessarily impact the monthly routine of creating TCC&S, but it's certainly possible. It's just a heads-up that the next batch of issues could be delayed or for the first time be issued on a less than monthly schedule. To order see New Voice Media.